Don’t wait until 2022 to fight against Tory rule

Published Tue 2 Jan 2018

Issue No. 2585

We can’t wait until the next general election—which might not come until 2022—to get the Tories out.

The government doesn’t haven’t a stable majority in parliament, and is wracked by divisions over Brexit. The year ended with Theresa May sacking her close friend and deputy prime minister Damian Green because he lied about pornography on his work computer.

May survives as prime minister only because there is no unifying figure to replace her and the fear of a Jeremy Corbyn government.

The Sunday Times claimed that five of the 21 Cabinet ministers are headed for the chop, and others, including Boris Johnson, could be shunted to new roles.

May’s Brexit “triumph” of reaching the next set of negotiations with the European Union has quickly come up against reality.

The talks now become even more difficult, and more likely to lead to defeats in parliament.

But for all their weaknesses, the Tories remain in office delivering brutal austerity and racism.

It’s good that some sections of workers, such as lecturers, are voting on strikes over pay and pensions. But other unions should be alongside them.

The TUC demonstration on 12 May is welcome, but not nearly enough.

Jeremy Corbyn’s new year message attacked the “self-serving elite, who look after themselves and their friends and a failed system which delivers staggering wealth at the top, while more and more people struggle to simply make ends meet.”

But Labour needs to build resistance in the streets and the workplaces, not just waiting for elections.

We have to act ourselves.

Socialist Worker urges all its readers to build all the Stand Up To Racism events, in particular the national demonstrations on 17 March in London, Cardiff and Glasgow.

We need to push for more strikes and protests, and step up solidarity with every strike and every battle for the NHS, education and other services.

And if Donald Trump dares to come to Britain, perhaps on 26 February, there will need to be hundreds of thousands on the streets against him, backed by workplace action, student walkouts and occupations.